A Lafayette man has been sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for letting others grow marijuana in three Oakland properties he owned, prosecutors said.

Thomas Grossi Sr., 62, was sentenced Friday by Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Jensen of Oakland, who also ordered him to forfeit almost $397,000. Grossi must surrender himself July 18 to start serving his sentence.

Grossi owned 2638 Market St., which in June 2004 became the site of the largest marijuana bust in Oakland’s history. California Highway Patrol officers and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents confiscated almost 2,400 plants, although local activists insisted the operation supplied the drug to patients under the state’s medical marijuana law.

After a three-week trial, a jury in January 2006 convicted Grossi of managing and controlling that property, and making it available to another person for the purpose of growing marijuana.

The jury deadlocked on a second count, which alleged that he’d done the same with his property at 2635 E. 11th St., but he pleaded guilty to that charge in February 2006. In that plea bargain, he also admitted he’d done the same at a third property, 1720-1722 Telegraph Ave.

Of those arrested in the Market Street operation, Celeste Angello of Santa Clara, Jesse Nieblas of Alameda, Jacek Mroz of San Leandro, Heleno De Araujo of Concord and Roy Lewis of Walnut Creek each pleaded guilty to misdemeanor aiding and abetting marijuana possession; each was sentenced to probation. Also, Mario Pacetti of Alameda pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the use of a place for growing marijuana and was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.

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